ivonshnitzel

ivonshnitzel t1_j18rrka wrote

Short answer is that there are ways to make neutrons produce more than one triton. Neutrons can react with lithium-7 to produce tritium + a neutron (which can then go on to react with another lithium-6 or lithium-7 nucleus to produce more tritium). Neutron multipliers such as beryllium that react with neutrons to produce two neutrons can also be included in the tritium bleeding blanket.

450

ivonshnitzel t1_j0a03hs wrote

Important to put the numbers in to context. They mention an increase from 0.5% land use for energy production to 3% in their net-zero scenario. It's a significant enough number that well thought out policy is needed, but according to this, 1.7% of the world's land is urban, 7.1% village, 14% cropland, and 26% pasture land. The 3% for energy production is a large increase in magnitude relative to existing energy infrastructure, but a drop in the bucket compared to total human land use (actually much less than I expected). Now add on top of this the fact that a lot the land for renewables will probably be dual use, such as wind farms on cropland, or solar on rooftops or pasture land, and it seems like it's actually quite a manageable number.

5